My Focus Question: Based on the archaeological and historical evidence, to what extent did the geographical location and the environment of Jamestown affect its survival as the first English colony?
This website displayed brief and concise information about the history of Jamestown, focusing on the early settlements. The writer of this informative article remains anonymous, and is most likely that this article was written by a group of people. I only used the beginning parts of this article because it talked about King James the first, and how he granted the charter to the Virginia company. This sufficiently matched my information needs, and informed me about how Jamestown was made, because before I only knew that the colonists landed in Jamestown in 1607. This article taught me about King James I, and I think that was a important bit of history that I needed for my project. Talking of reliability, I think this article is very reliable and accurate in its information because the APVA is an organization that preserves the historic parts of Virginia, and I think that the APVA has no reasons to lie about the things that they are preserving and helping excavate.
This article of the World Book Online Advanced about Jamestown was a very good overview source that helped expand my background knowledge of this subject. This internet article was very general. It showed the whole timeline from the early settlements of Jamestown until when it was burned down because of Bacon’s Rebellion. The author of this article was James Horn, and since an overview source wrote this article, it is very reliable and was really useful in my project, because I did not know anything about Jamestown until I read this article and viewed some other sources with it. As always, I used only a part of this article. I used the parts where it focused on the subjects like the environment of Jamestown.
Kelso,William M.. Jamestown: The Buried Truth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia University Press, 2006.
The book Jamestown: The Buried Truth is about the archaeological evidence found at Jamestown sites that support the author/archaeologist, William M. Kelso’s point of view. As an archaeologist, he uses many quotes from historical documents, as well as artifacts to account the events that happened at Jamestown. The pieces of the book used to gather my background knowledge and my supporting details were chapters Rediscovering Jamestown, and Recovering Jamestownians. Kelso includes many excerpts from many primary sources written by real colonists such as John Smith, William Stratchey, and George Percy. This book in general was very efficient and easy to use. Kelso provided adequate and appropriate information for me to support my point of view. The author’s point of view, or his thesis, is strongly supported by the artifacts that as an archaeologist, the author found at the Jamestown and James Fort site. The author, Kelso’s point of view was that the environment of Jamestown affected the overall development of Jamestown, and also eluded to some social difficulties within the colony.
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. The Jamestown Project. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
The Jamestown Project is a book about the long time line since when Queen Elizabeth showed interest to the new world, until when finally, the first English colony settles in Jamestown. The author, Karen Ordahl Kupperman describes Jamestown’s “uncertain beginnings”. Kupperman shows many examples of these “uncertain beginnings” by referring to the uncertainty in leadership, how no colonist knew who their leader was until they arrived in the New World and six names came out of the box that King James I had given them. Kupperman also writes about the uncertain diplomacy with the Native Americans in that region. I used only a part of this book, the chapter “Jamestown’s Uncertain Beginnings”, full of hopes thinking that there would be something about the environment or the location of Jamestown, and in fact, there was. The information in this book contained more written, documental evidence, unlike the book, Jamestown: The Buried Truth, which had many archaeological evidence. That might have been because the author of this book is a professor of history, and the author of Jamestown: The Buried Truth was an archaeologist.
Woolley, Benjamin. Savage Kingdom: The True Story if Jamestown 1607, and the settlement of America. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007.
The book, SavageKingdom: The True Story if Jamestown 1607, and the settlement of America, written by Benjamin Woolley, informs the basic knowledge of Jamestown, in other words expanded my background knowledge of Jamestown. Woolley writes about certain aspects of Jamestown, such as the inner conflicts within the colony, and the hostility of the Indians. He writes about the Indians surrounding the Jamestown/ James Fort area, the first women settlers to Jamestown, the diplomacy with the Native Americans, and James Fort as well. This book helped get a little closer to the subject, Jamestown. This book told me a lot about the relationships with Jamestown and the Native Americans. I think it was wise to use this book because even though the author, (who lives in London) was not a professor or an archaeologist, he had written for BBC documentaries on United States history.
The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown.2005.DVD. Produced by Charles Poe. National Geographic
In the National Geographic film, The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown, the examples of the harsh living conditions of Jamestown colonists are explicitly shown. The film displays many conflicts in between the colonists, and in between the Native Americans and the colonists, as well. The civil conflicts that took place were that “gentlemen” would not do any work like other colonists. The producers could figure these conflicts out because of the dead bodies of colonists found, surprisingly with musket bullets in them. And since the body was dated before the Native Americans had gun, they concluded that they were shot by other colonists. Also, the severe drought and famine led cannibalism, as well as diseases that now are hypothetically thought of as salt water poisoning, from the James River water. This source was a very reliable source to use because it was made by the National Geographic, and usually their products prove to be very informative and accurate, than comparing to a Hollywood movie, where some misinformation might be in place. In general, the film was very easy to understand, and I really enjoyed watching this film. I think that this film was my first step, and my inspiration, (when we first watched it in class) to start a project on Jamestown.
Smith, John . "Captain John Smith’s Description of the Landing in Virginia (1607)."Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1908.World Book Advanced. [Place of access.] 27 July 2008 <http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/document?id=dc101430>. This source from the World Book Online reference website is a primary source. To be exact the title is, “Captain John Smith’s Description of the Landing in Virginia”. In fact, like its title implies, this source was what Captain John Smith actually wrote. In this journal entry of John Smith, he talks about the leadership election, and how he looked at as being a government being formed by names from a box. He also accounts the events of Indians shooting some colonists, as soon as they arrived. This source, for my information needs, described the geography of the Jamestown region, from John Smith’s exploration around that area. He writes, “set forward to discover the river, some fifty or sixty miles, finding it in some places broader, and in some narrower, the country (for the most part) on each side plain high ground, with many fresh springs […]”His point of view was that James Island was a perfect place to settle. Since this was a primary source, I think that the accuracy of the information will be quite correct, since this was written by a person who actually experienced being in the New World, and settling in Jamestown.
My Focus Question: Based on the archaeological and historical evidence, to what extent did the geographical location and the environment of Jamestown affect its survival as the first English colony?
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Annotated Bibliography
"History of Jamestown." 2000.http://www.apva.org/history/ (accessed July 29,2008).
This website displayed brief and concise information about the history of Jamestown, focusing on the early settlements. The writer of this informative article remains anonymous, and is most likely that this article was written by a group of people. I only used the beginning parts of this article because it talked about King James the first, and how he granted the charter to the Virginia company. This sufficiently matched my information needs, and informed me about how Jamestown was made, because before I only knew that the colonists landed in Jamestown in 1607. This article taught me about King James I, and I think that was a important bit of history that I needed for my project. Talking of reliability, I think this article is very reliable and accurate in its information because the APVA is an organization that preserves the historic parts of Virginia, and I think that the APVA has no reasons to lie about the things that they are preserving and helping excavate.
Horn, James. "Jamestown." World Book Advanced. 2008. [Place of access.] 29 July. 2008.<http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar285320>.
This article of the World Book Online Advanced about Jamestown was a very good overview source that helped expand my background knowledge of this subject. This internet article was very general. It showed the whole timeline from the early settlements of Jamestown until when it was burned down because of Bacon’s Rebellion. The author of this article was James Horn, and since an overview source wrote this article, it is very reliable and was really useful in my project, because I did not know anything about Jamestown until I read this article and viewed some other sources with it. As always, I used only a part of this article. I used the parts where it focused on the subjects like the environment of Jamestown.
Kelso,William M.. Jamestown: The Buried Truth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia University Press, 2006.
The book Jamestown: The Buried Truth is about the archaeological evidence found at Jamestown sites that support the author/archaeologist, William M. Kelso’s point of view. As an archaeologist, he uses many quotes from historical documents, as well as artifacts to account the events that happened at Jamestown. The pieces of the book used to gather my background knowledge and my supporting details were chapters Rediscovering Jamestown, and Recovering Jamestownians. Kelso includes many excerpts from many primary sources written by real colonists such as John Smith, William Stratchey, and George Percy. This book in general was very efficient and easy to use. Kelso provided adequate and appropriate information for me to support my point of view. The author’s point of view, or his thesis, is strongly supported by the artifacts that as an archaeologist, the author found at the Jamestown and James Fort site. The author, Kelso’s point of view was that the environment of Jamestown affected the overall development of Jamestown, and also eluded to some social difficulties within the colony.
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. The Jamestown Project. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
The Jamestown Project is a book about the long time line since when Queen Elizabeth showed interest to the new world, until when finally, the first English colony settles in Jamestown. The author, Karen Ordahl Kupperman describes Jamestown’s “uncertain beginnings”. Kupperman shows many examples of these “uncertain beginnings” by referring to the uncertainty in leadership, how no colonist knew who their leader was until they arrived in the New World and six names came out of the box that King James I had given them. Kupperman also writes about the uncertain diplomacy with the Native Americans in that region. I used only a part of this book, the chapter “Jamestown’s Uncertain Beginnings”, full of hopes thinking that there would be something about the environment or the location of Jamestown, and in fact, there was. The information in this book contained more written, documental evidence, unlike the book, Jamestown: The Buried Truth, which had many archaeological evidence. That might have been because the author of this book is a professor of history, and the author of Jamestown: The Buried Truth was an archaeologist.
Woolley, Benjamin. Savage Kingdom: The True Story if Jamestown 1607, and the settlement of America. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007.
The book, Savage Kingdom: The True Story if Jamestown 1607, and the settlement of America, written by Benjamin Woolley, informs the basic knowledge of Jamestown, in other words expanded my background knowledge of Jamestown. Woolley writes about certain aspects of Jamestown, such as the inner conflicts within the colony, and the hostility of the Indians. He writes about the Indians surrounding the Jamestown/ James Fort area, the first women settlers to Jamestown, the diplomacy with the Native Americans, and James Fort as well. This book helped get a little closer to the subject, Jamestown. This book told me a lot about the relationships with Jamestown and the Native Americans. I think it was wise to use this book because even though the author, (who lives in London) was not a professor or an archaeologist, he had written for BBC documentaries on United States history.
The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown.2005.DVD. Produced by Charles Poe. National Geographic
In the National Geographic film, The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown, the examples of the harsh living conditions of Jamestown colonists are explicitly shown. The film displays many conflicts in between the colonists, and in between the Native Americans and the colonists, as well. The civil conflicts that took place were that “gentlemen” would not do any work like other colonists. The producers could figure these conflicts out because of the dead bodies of colonists found, surprisingly with musket bullets in them. And since the body was dated before the Native Americans had gun, they concluded that they were shot by other colonists. Also, the severe drought and famine led cannibalism, as well as diseases that now are hypothetically thought of as salt water poisoning, from the James River water. This source was a very reliable source to use because it was made by the National Geographic, and usually their products prove to be very informative and accurate, than comparing to a Hollywood movie, where some misinformation might be in place. In general, the film was very easy to understand, and I really enjoyed watching this film. I think that this film was my first step, and my inspiration, (when we first watched it in class) to start a project on Jamestown.
Smith, John . "Captain John Smith’s Description of the Landing in Virginia (1607)." Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1908. World Book Advanced. [Place of access.] 27 July 2008 <http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/document?id=dc101430>.
This source from the World Book Online reference website is a primary source. To be exact the title is, “Captain John Smith’s Description of the Landing in Virginia”. In fact, like its title implies, this source was what Captain John Smith actually wrote. In this journal entry of John Smith, he talks about the leadership election, and how he looked at as being a government being formed by names from a box. He also accounts the events of Indians shooting some colonists, as soon as they arrived. This source, for my information needs, described the geography of the Jamestown region, from John Smith’s exploration around that area. He writes, “set forward to discover the river, some fifty or sixty miles, finding it in some places broader, and in some narrower, the country (for the most part) on each side plain high ground, with many fresh springs […]”His point of view was that James Island was a perfect place to settle. Since this was a primary source, I think that the accuracy of the information will be quite correct, since this was written by a person who actually experienced being in the New World, and settling in Jamestown.